Humanitarian commandos aid Burma‘s ethnic Karen villagers
by DVB-AFP
Source : Burma Peace Campaign (19-12-01)
On the banks of the Salween river, which marks the border between Thailand and Burma, a small group sets off for the jungle carrying medicine and blankets, but also Bibles and toys.
Among the 30-strong group prepared to enter conflict zones in the rugged border region are 20 ethnic Karen, the largest ethnic minority group in Burma, formerly called Burma.With jute bags slung from their foreheads, the Free Burma Rangers, as the group is known, provide medical aid and moral support to the thousands of Karen who have fled into Burma‘s jungles to escape military repression.
Many Karen speak of having seen their villages sacked, cattle massacred and mothers, fathers and children taken or killed by Myanmar‘s army, the Tatmadaw.The attacks against the villagers are the consequence of an offensive Known as the "four cuts", which was launched in the mid-1960s by the now-retired autocrat Ne Win and was intended to isolate insurgent groups.The campaign to cut off food, funds, intelligence and recruits has left most of Burma‘s formerly autonomous ethnic regions under the control of the military regime.
The Free Burma Rangers is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) created by a missionary and ex-officer of the US Special Forces.Its mission is to intervene where others will not or cannot -- at the Heart of a conflict that has raged for more than 50 years, pitting Karen resistance groups such as the Karen National Liberation Armay (KNLA) against the comparatively mighty Burma army.
The KNLA is the military wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), one of the last major insurgent groups battling for autonomy against the central government in Rangoon.
The Karen militia also contends with the pro-Rangoon Democratic KarenBuddhist Army (DKBA), an ethnic force that joined the government fold in return for new villages and supplies in military-held areas.
The Free Burma Rangers entered the fray amid a major assault on the KNLA in 1997, according to Thera To, 25, who joined the Rangers at its launch.
"The Free Burma Rangers was born in 1997, at the same time that the KNLA suffered the most violent offensive ever launched by the Rangoon junta," he said."Since the KNLA was overwhelmed and could not provide for the protection of the civilian population, hundreds of villages were destroyed and thousands of villagers fled into the jungle.""Something had to be done," Thera To added. "Thus the birth of theRangers."
Inspired by Christian beliefs, Rangers wear their philosophy on t-shirts that serve as their uniforms: "Love one another, work together for freedom, justice and peace. Forgive and do not hate. Pray with respect, act with courage, never surrender."
The humanitarian commandos aim to help internally displaced people and collect information on human rights violations.They are funded by donations from American and Danish churches, among Other sources, which provide support for 10 groups of between three and 10 people to embark on monthly missions that last from several days to a month.
On a recent three-week mission, the small group crossed into 10 villages unknown to the Burma army and cared for some 500 people who had tragic tales to tell.
"The Burma army arrived in my village at the same time I was visiting an uncle," a young teacher said."They took girls, battered by mother and recruited my father and his brother as their porters, then set fire to my village," she said. My father died of exhaustion a short while later, my uncle has two broken legs."
According to estimates by the NGO, there are between 200,000 and 300,000 internally displaced people in Burma‘s Karen and Karenni states.More than 120,000 Karens and Karennis have found refuge in dozens of Camps on the Thai-Burma border, while others have been forced to live in settlements of internally displaced people where the Karen say living conditions are primitive.
International human rights group Amnesty International expressed its "grave concern" last week after the Tatmadaw reportedly burned and looted a settlement of internally displaced Karen across the border from Thailand.
According to the KNU, the junta has some 120 battalions destroying homes, villages, carrying out executions, torture and rapes in areas where the Karen are active.Burma, for its part, accuses the rebel Karen of using bases in Thailand to launch operations against its territory and has demanded cooperation from Bangkok.
An old Karen man standing at the crossroads of a jungle track told the Free Burma Rangers that the groups should pray for one another."We pray for you because we know you also have serious problems (after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States). Pray for us and we will return to paradise."